Tesco colleagues welcomed their first customers to the new store in Twickenham on Friday.
The brand new store on King Street will open its doors this week and in addition to serving the local community with a wide range of fresh food and other supplies, the store team will also be working hard to support local charities and good causes.
Harpreet Kharay, the store’s manager says she and her team are excited to open what will be one of Tesco’s most eco-friendly stores to date, featuring recycled and sustainable materials throughout and which generated no landfill waste in construction.
Ms Kharay said: “Although it has been a difficult time for many, we’re hugely excited to be opening our Twickenham Express store. It will provide a real boost for the area, creating 18 new jobs and helping to employ and train local people.”
She added: “We’re also excited about encouraging our customers to take part in our community initiatives too by voting in store for local good causes that can benefit financially from our Tesco’s Community Grants scheme.”
Since 2016, 63 local groups have received £143,519 through Tesco Community Grants. Local groups are invited to apply for community funding through the scheme which sees three local projects voted on by customers in store every three months, with first place awarded £2,000, second place £1,000 and third place £500.
The store will also donate surplus food via the Tesco Community Food Connection scheme run in partnership with food redistribution charity FareShare. Each day Tesco redistributes surplus food from its stores across the UK to provide millions of meals to charities every year.
79,643 meals have already been donated in the Twickenham area through Community Food Connection since the scheme began in 2015.
